Taking on Twins (11 page)

 

The streets had long since rolled up and darkness had descended over the sleepy little town of Keyhole. Hours ago, the street lamps buzzed on, and it seemed to Annie
that they were the only two people awake within a hundred mile radius.

“You have really done a great job with this place,” Wyatt murmured, lifting his mug and blowing across the rim of his second cup of coffee.

They kept their voices deliberately low, even though the twins had slept through the popping bubble wrap, the silly play and Emily's visit. Annie had scoured up some cookies from a cabinet in the boy's playroom, and they were enjoying a dessert, of sorts. She tilted her head and followed the drift of his gaze with her own.

“You think? I don't know. I've grown up here, and any changes I've made have come so slowly, it's hard to tell.” She took a cookie and settled into the chair next to his.

“You can take my word for it. This—” his arm swept the area they'd just spent the evening cleaning “—is a cool store. You have some neat stuff here. And your art has really improved through the years.”

Annie felt a flush crawl up her neck and burn in her cheeks. “No,” she murmured and ducked her head. He was simply saying these things because he was a bigshot and he could afford to be magnanimous to the struggling backwater artist.

“Yes. Take that one, for instance.” He nodded to a pastoral scene she'd done last year. “The way you've captured the reflection of that barn in the puddle…brilliant. You were always really good, but now—” he shrugged, his eyes never leaving her painting “—you're great. I know galleries in the city that would kill for your stuff.”

Annie gave her head a modest shake. “No thanks. I have quite enough to keep me busy these days.”

“That's true. But still, selling a few works in a city on the coast wouldn't take all that much of your time. Especially if you had help with the marketing end. You'd have
to have help.” His gaze shifted to the boys and a soft look settled behind his eyes. “As it is, I don't know how you do it. These guys are enough to wear a triathlete out.”

She laughed. “Luckily, I don't have to play space monster every day.”

Pulling a foot up over his knee, Wyatt leaned back and studied Annie through the steam of his cup. “You did a good thing by leaving school to come here, Annie. Even if I didn't think so at the time.”

“It was really hard to know what to do.”

“I'm sure I was no help.”

“In your own way, you were.” Her smile was wan as she reflected on their past. “Right after Daddy had the first stroke and ended up in the hospital, I came here to the store to call you, because it was quiet here and I could cry and stuff. Anyway, you can imagine my surprise—” She looked away, swallowing and blinking. Shooting him a bleary smile, she fanned her flaming face with her hands. How silly that this memory still choked her up.

“Ahh, Annie, honey.” Wyatt heaved a cross between a sigh and a groan. He set down his cup and picking his chair up, moved right next to her and gathered her in his arms.

“When that girl answered and said you were in the shower, I—” Her laughter was strained. “I didn't know what to think.”

Wyatt dragged a hand over the five o'clock shadow on his jaw. “Oh, sweetheart. I'm so very, very sorry about that. It was all a big mix-up.”

“Mix-up?”

“That's what it was.”

“To you, Wyatt. Not to me.” She hated the plaintive quality in her voice and the fact that her eyes were filling with tears. “Too me it was a lie.”

“Now that I'm older and wiser, I can see how you
wouldn't believe my explanation. But, Annie girl, after all these years, I have no further reason to lie to you.” He cradled her head against his chest and she could hear his pulse pounding nearly as quickly as her own. With his thumb and forefinger, he tipped up her chin and forced her to meet his gaze. “So here's the honest truth. That girl in my room was just a study partner. Pure and simple. I give you my word that nothing was going on. Nothing. Annie, I was madly in love with you.”

Annie drew a deep breath and held it. In her heart, she'd known. But her world had been so violently rocked by the near loss of her father, and then, the feeling of betrayal. A sigh shuddered through her.

“I guess it was the part about you being in the shower that threw me.”

“And I can understand that. But there were a bunch of us. It was dead week. We'd study, then catnap, then take cold showers to wake up. I didn't even find out you'd called until after the test. Unfortunately, by then, the damage was done.”

Annie lifted and dropped a shoulder. “It was all for the best. Your betrayal—”

“Alleged betrayal.”

“You are such a lawyer.” She fixed him with a bemused expression. “Anyway, that ‘mix-up' was just the catalyst I needed to throw myself back into my life in Keyhole. To give up all those silly dreams of becoming some kind of fancy big-time artist—”

“They weren't silly!”

“Compared to my father's life, they were, Wyatt.”

He sighed. “You're right. Back then, I just didn't understand. I'm only just now beginning to get the meaning of family. And what I've missed out on over the years.”
His gaze wandered back to her sleeping sons. “Annie, I don't think I ever got over losing you.”

She closed her eyes.
Nor I, you,
she wanted to say. But that would be just plain stupid. They'd gone on with their lives. Gone in polar opposite directions. No use going there. “There's nothing we can do about any of that now. It's over. Done with.”

“I can apologize. I can beg your forgiveness. I will be able to sleep better, knowing that the wedge between us is gone. That the future will be—”

Frustrated, Annie leaned back and plunged her fingers into the springy coils of her hair. Elbows akimbo, she stared at him. “
What
future, Wyatt?” she cried, then leaning forward, lowered her voice to the intimate whisper they'd been sharing. “You live so far away. You've built a life for yourself. A good and important life. But so have I. I love it here. I need my family, especially where my boys are concerned. A long-distance friendship of any kind would be pointless.”

Annie knew long distance had done them in once. What made them think it would be any different now, as friends?

Wyatt was quiet for a very long time before he spoke again. “Annie, are you really happy here?”

“Of course. How could you even ask?”

“Because once upon a time, being an artist and illustrator was everything to you.”

“And now I'm just somebody's mom, moldering away in some middle-of-nowhere town.”

“I didn't say that.”

“It's what you meant.”

Annie stood and began gathering the paper plates and other mess from their impromptu meal. As far as she was concerned, this discussion was over. Arms full, she marched over to the garbage receptacle under the cashier's
desk and dumped her load. She gave her hands a savage dusting and turning, nearly bumped into Wyatt.

He grasped her arms to steady her, and didn't let go. “I didn't come here to cast aspersions on your lifestyle. To be honest with you, I'm a little jealous of all you've done for yourself.”

“Sure.” Head tilted back, she cast him a derisive smile, then allowed her eyes to slide shut. “Wyatt, I know I err on the side of playing it safe. Too safe, sometimes.” She lifted her gaze to his. “That for all my fine talk, when we were kids, I probably would have hated the city and the dog-eat-dog artist community. I'm comfortable here in Keyhole. This is where I want to be.”

“You've never tried anything else.”

“I don't have to try it to know that I'd be miserable.”

“You're hiding behind your family.”

“No, I'm not! Wyatt, you are the risk taker, not me. You are drawn to new and challenging worlds. If we'd have married back when we were kids, I'd—”

He tightened his grip on her arm and pulled her close. “What?”

Annie gulped back the tears. Tears that she'd thought she'd been through crying years ago. “I'd have held you back.”

“Is that what you think?”

“That's what I know.” She glanced away. The boys were still snoozing, and the only sounds in the store were the occasional chime or cuckoo of an antique clock, and the gentle whir of the heater clicking on. Other than this, the world was silent.

“You'd never have held me back. Don't you see? You were everything to me. Annie, I'd have done anything for you.”

“Except give up your career.”

“Then.”

“You mean to tell me you'd give it all up now? For me?” Her gaze shifted over his face and settled on his mouth. A pensive quirk pulled the corners tight.

“Are you asking me to?”

“No,” she whispered, not knowing what she wanted anymore. A week ago she thought she had her future all figured out. Run the shop, raise the boys, send them to college, enjoy her grandchildren, putter in the garden, do a bit of painting. Now she wasn't so sure.

“Annie,” he whispered, cupping her cheeks in his hands and looking deeply into her eyes, “I gave up a future with you because I thought it was what
you
wanted. I would do anything to make you happy. Anything.” Eyes flashing, he brought their noses together. “Annie, girl, don't you know, I'd die for you?”

Annie's heart thundered and she clutched his arms as he sought her mouth.

“That I
am
dying for you?”

He closed his mouth over hers in a kiss that stripped Annie of any sense of reality and zapped her back to a more carefree time. A time when she had her whole life ahead of her. A time when she could be anything she wanted. Live where she wanted. Make a life with whom she wanted.

And right now—again, always—she wanted Wyatt.

 

Bruised and bleeding from his stint in the brambles with the hydrophobic Fifi, Snake Eyes hobbled back to his rent-a-wreck and, holding one hand over his eye to better discern the number of lanes that swam before him, drove to Main Street to find a pay phone. He managed to successfully land between two cars and the curb, doing only a minor amount of damage to each bumper. Throwing open
his door, he fell out to the sidewalk and lay there for a moment, breathing hard.

Chasing runaways was hard work.

Nicotine. Yeah. A cig would give him the energy he needed to drag himself to his feet, so he rolled to his side, fished in his pockets for a moment, then fired up a smoke and filled his lungs.

A couple out for a moonlight stroll stared as they approached.

“Herb, isn't he the man who was laying on the floor at the restaurant the other night?” the woman wondered.

“Looks like him.” Herb grunted. “Evenin',” he said as he towered over Snake Eyes.

Hat askew, flesh clawed, clothes covered in blood, Snake Eyes squinted up at them through a cloud of smoke.

“Are you all right?” The woman's pity made Snake Eyes mad.

“Yeah. Why? You own this ssidewalk, lady? Cuz if you don't, then you can go straight to he-
ic-up
—” He burped and waved drunkenly.

“Why, you ill-mannered—”

“C'mon, Gert. Leave him be.”

“I think we should call the sheriff…”

“Why? He's done nothing wrong.”

Their voices trailed off and when they were a good two blocks away, Snake Eyes gripped his car door and hauled himself to his feet. He stood swaying for a minute, then staggered to the phone booth on the corner. After taking his ill-humor out on a perfectly nice operator, he was eventually connected to Prosperino.

Meredith picked up on the first ring. “Why are you calling me so late?”

Snake Eyes could feel her fury vibrating across the lines.
So what? He didn't give a rat's patoon-ya. “Where's my money?”

“What money?”

“I went to the bank today. No deposit activity.”

“Did you do the job?”

Snake Eyes banged the receiver against the wall a few times for good measure. “Not till I get paid.”

“You'll get
paid
when you do the
job!
”

“I'll do the damned
job
when I get
paid!
”

“Don't mess with me, you disgusting, low-life reprobate.” Her voice shook with anger as she drew in a deep breath and muttered, “If you don't finish what you started, you odious pig, you'll see no more money.”

“I'll visit the bank again tomorrow and we'll see.” Bored with this conversation and needing fortification and more than a few stitches, Snake Eyes hung up and headed across the street to the one joint that stayed open all night.

 

Wyatt had no idea how long they'd been standing there, bodies pressed together, hands caressing, mouths locked and seeking, communicating without words the feelings they still harbored for each other. He knew he could go on like this forever and never look back.

But could Annie? She'd found love again. Made a life with another man. Created life with him, for pity's sake. That was heavy stuff.

And then there was the minor problem of their living arrangements. He had a new and already thriving family law practice with his brother Rand. She had a thriving family business, handed down from her father. And in between lay a couple thousand miles. Hard to be a good husband with that kind of a commute.

Wyatt couldn't think with Annie so near. The smell of her, the feel of her, the taste of her were all too intoxicating.
When they were together this way all rational thought fled and he dreamed of fathering two little redheaded boys and refinishing furniture for the rest of his life. But that simply wasn't realistic.

Taking Annie's hands in his, he gently tugged them from where they were locked around his neck and, lips still touching, took a small step back.